Let's Have a Gratitude Praise Party!

Many of you know that I received a "polio" style brace and shoe for my developing drop foot in March and I've been refashioning my wardrobe to go with it. Because  the whole enchilada cost us so much (almost a $1000),  when it began to develop problems, I knew I was in trouble.

 

First, I got my brace caught on the  corner end of a church pew so that the toe end of the shoe sole popped open and began yelling at me, "HEY! Are you trying to rip your leg off?"  I was returning to the pew after communion and I have never been able to accurately ascertain where body parts are in relation to things around me, hence damage to body parts. grin!

 

Next, the toe sides seams were coming apart near the end of the shoe on the inside of the foot. They weren't actually sewn together there, even though it appeared to be so. I guess the Velcro closure on that side was putting extra pressure on the glue holding the layers together.

 

And, then, when I sat on my lift chair wearing the brace, I could sometimes feel my toes swelling (the end of my toes rest against the end of shoe inside with no room to spare) and the shoe leather pressed on the outside corner of my big toe which hurt like an ingrown toenail. Some of you who have experienced that kind of pain will understand what a pain that is! grin!

 

Well, my technician said to come back in anytime I had trouble with the shoe and/or brace. I asked him if I should make an appointment for that and he said no, just walk in, so that's what we did yesterday morning.

 

Because my male technician was busy with another patient, a woman technician saw to me, reviewed the shoes, and got me squared away. She's ordering new shoes, 1/2 size larger, that should come in two weeks and it will take them 2 or 3 days to put my brace into the sole of the new pair and IT WON'T COST ME A THING since the shoes were covered by the warranty! Yippee! Thank you Jesus. Woo Hoo!

 

Take Time

I'm so sorry I haven't been writing my gratitude's lately. Been taking a little break because I've been refashioning my wardrobe, watching many sewing tutorial videos and scrolling through Pinterest to find ideas for doing that. While I was at Youtube, I began to compile a new playlist on gratitude tools. It only has 4 videos in the playlist so far, but hopefully it will grow.

Here's some of the gratitude's that I've been writing down on my sermon note sheets in the last few weeks:

1. Warmth and light
2. RAKs from friends
3. his goodness
4. his provision
5. creative ideas for clothing to wear with leg brace for the summer
6. FISH money -- coins picked up off the ground and unexpected money given to us from friends and family -- may God continue to provide!
7. freedom
8. the vocalist special in our church service
9. godly values like patience, stamina, faith, a willing spirit, generosity
10. offspring
11. grace

I cut loose this last month and did some artwork in my faith-book. First I used the back of my divider for quotes and doodled some flowers around them. If you want to read the quotes I wrote down, click on the photo to enlarge.

 

I also water-colored my scripture sheet until the last week. I couldn't find my water brush then, so used markers instead. Didn't like the results, but was inspired by Stephanie to make the stripes.

 

Since I had been invited to a shoebox party and Stephanie had sent us an assignment to make a large tag with encouraging words for our faith-books, I used the idea for my contribution to our annual craft day.  I didn't have a large tag die, so instead I found a sack of manila envelopes at a thrift store and prepared the background in advance. All the girls had to do was to glue on the hearts, the little torn scrap of prescription paper, distress the edges with ink and stamp the words from my sample.  Cute little decorated pocket to store goodies in our  faith-books!

 



 

I've been getting nudges from my conscience lately that I need to get back to reading my Bible. I've gotten into a rut of being too busy for God. As I've been thinking about it, I remembered what Dr. Ketterman told us -- every parent needs to teach their child to spend 20 minutes every day in quiet time. It is meant to be used to decompress, to rest, to reflect on the positive attributes of the day, to read from God's word,  to meditate on God's goodness, to pray, and to praise.

 

And as a parent, I couldn't just expect my child to do as I say and not as I do. I had to model quiet time  too! Many of my friends are now becoming grandparents and some of them babysit or are raising grandchildren and getting a second chance to re-parent. They can begin anytime to instill quiet time on a daily basis. Dr. Ketterman said to set the timer for 20 minutes, sit down and read for that length of time or journal and pray. No TV, nor radio unless it is soothing music like classical or instrumental hymns. Make it a priority and teach the children not to disturb each other or mama during that time unless it is an emergency such as blood gushing from some body part. grin!

 

With our son's ADHD like symptoms, this was almost sheer torture for him, because his little body wanted to be active constantly and since my husband had a hard time getting him to go to bed at night (I had afternoon nap duty and husband had evening duty), we instilled the quiet time just before bedtime. My husband began reading books to our son such as an ABC Bible story book and later hubby let the son read to him. After the book reading, then hubby taught him to pray the Lord's prayer.

To have a spiritually healthy relationship with Jesus, I need to read, rest, and reflect. Take time to join me, won't you?